This invention relates to peach trees and, more specifically, to peach trees referred to as a variety of Prunus persica named xe2x80x98TROPICPEACHONExe2x80x99. xe2x80x98TROPICPEACHONExe2x80x99, which requires approximately 150 chilling units of dormancy, produces an exceptionally high quality, firm clingstone peach that matures early in the season.
The xe2x80x98TROPICPEACHONExe2x80x99 peach is characterized as to novelty and is otherwise noteworthy by producing fruit that ripens in the early season; is considered very high quality; and which is firm and has an attractive coloration. In this regard, the present variety of peach tree bears fruit that are ripe for commercial harvesting and shipment in the last days of May and/or the first days of June, when the fruit is grown in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. xe2x80x98TROPICPEACHONExe2x80x99 ripens 7 to 10 days earlier than its parent, xe2x80x98TropicBeautyxe2x80x99 Peach, a non-patented variety (Rouse and Sherman, HortScience, 24:165-166, 198). Additionally, the new variety exhibits the potential to be commercialized in regions that have chilling requirements that are relatively low.
The present peach tree was the result of an ongoing Stone Fruit Breeding Program of Texas A and M University, College Station, Brazos County, Tex. To this end, both controlled and hybrid crosses are made each year in order to produce seedling populations from which improved progenies are evaluated and selected.
The seedling xe2x80x98TROPICPEACHONExe2x80x99 was originated at the Texas A and M Citrus Center in Weslaco, Hidalgo County, Tex. in 1994, and was chosen from a population of seedlings that resulted from a controlled cross of the peach xe2x80x98TropicBeautyxe2x80x99, used as the seed parent, and xe2x80x98TropicBeautyxe2x80x99, which was also used as the pollen parent. Resulting seed from this cross were planted in 1992 at the Citrus Center in Weslaco, Tex. xe2x80x98TROPICPEACHONExe2x80x99 was marked for subsequent observation and noted as having exceptional characteristics. Two-and three-year old trees of the variety were subsequently evaluated during the 1999 and 2000 fruit growing seasons.
xe2x80x98TROPICPEACHONExe2x80x99 was bud grafted onto virus-free Nemaguard (xe2x80x9cThe Brooks and Olmo Register of Fruit and Nut Varieties,xe2x80x9d 3rd Ed., American Society of Horticultural Science Press, Alexandria, Va., 1997) peach rootstock in May 1997 at a nursery site in Oakdale, Calif. The variety was subsequently planted at the experimental orchard in the central portion of the San Joaquin Valley, near Fowler, Fresno County, Calif. Fruit from the resulting propagation has been evaluated for both the 1999 and 2000 fruit seasons. This evaluation clearly demonstrated that the re-propagated trees were true to the characteristics of the original seedling in all observable aspects.